Preparations for Putin-Trump Summit Delayed Shortly Following Budapest Talks Announced
There are "no plans" for American leader Donald Trump to meet Russian President Putin "in the near term", a White House official has declared.
This past week Trump stated he and the Kremlin leader would hold talks in Hungary's capital in the coming fortnight to address the ongoing hostilities.
A planning session between US Secretary of State Secretary Rubio and his opposite number Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House clarified the two had had a "constructive" call and that a face-to-face session was not "necessary".
The administration withheld additional specifics on why the talks had been postponed.
Background Context
The US president had raised the possibility of a Hungarian meeting via telephone with Putin, a just prior to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.
Certain accounts suggested his meeting with Zelensky had been a "heated exchange", with those familiar claiming Trump had pressured him to give up significant territories of Ukraine's east as part of a agreement with Moscow.
Nevertheless, on this week Trump endorsed a truce plan backed by Ukraine and EU officials to halt the war on the current front line.
"Leave it as is where it stands," he remarked.
Russia has repeatedly pushed back against halting the current line of contact.
The Russian government was solely focused on "long-term, sustainable peace", Russia's foreign minister stated on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a short-term truce.
Diplomatic Positions
The "root causes" of the conflict needed to be addressed, Lavrov stated, using Moscow's terminology for a range of comprehensive conditions that encompass the acknowledgment of total Russian authority over the eastern region as well as the military reduction of the country – a impossible condition for Kyiv and its Western allies.
Zelensky said discussions about the battle positions were the "beginning of diplomacy" but that Russia was "taking all measures" to prevent dialogue.
He additionally stated the sole subject that could make Moscow "take notice" was that of the delivery of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Strategic Factors
Putin's unplanned conversation with Trump last Thursday preceded reports that the US was considering delivering distance-capable weapons to Ukraine that could theoretically target inside Russia.
The Ukrainian leader asserted it was the weapons consideration that had forced Russia to engage in discussion. The discussion regarding the weapons systems had proven to be a "significant input" in negotiations", he remarked.